Disaster aid or disaster in making?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s risky decision to wait until the 11th hour to hold a vote on a must-pass budget bill relies on the support of a handful of Republicans who previously backed a Democratic plan approving billions in federal disaster aid.

Text Size

-

+

reset

POLITICO 44

Republicans appear well-positioned to prevent the Democratic leader’s hardball tactics from succeeding, a dispute that pushes the budget of the cash-strapped Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the brink and puts the entire federal government on the cusp of a partial shutdown by the end of Friday.

If he falls short Monday evening, Reid will be faced with a crucial decision: Either allow the Senate to pass a House Republican stopgap budget bill that Democrats blocked on Friday, or try to forge a new way forward that could peel off enough Senate GOP support and force the House to return from recess to pass their plan.

It’s unclear which path the Senate will take, though top Democrats over the weekend began gaming out their legislative options with time running short and FEMA warning its dollars could run dry by Tuesday or Wednesday.

In the meantime, Reid has reached out to some wavering Republicans in hopes of securing 60 votes on his $1.043 trillion plan. Reid’s proposal would keep government operations running until Nov. 18 and would provide $3.65 billion for aid so FEMA can continue to respond to a spate of recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Irene, which ravaged the East Coast in August. Reid’s plan mirrors the House GOP proposal, with the exception of spending cuts aimed at offsetting the costs of the emergency spending.

At least one Senate Republican right now, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, is expected to back Reid’s effort, his spokeswoman said, but others who supported a nearly $7 billion package of disaster aid are either opposed to the latest push or are non-committal. With at least three Republicans who backed the $7 billion package expected to oppose the plan, Reid cannot afford to lose another GOP vote or he’ll fall short of the 60 needed to break a GOP filibuster Monday evening.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday he was “pretty confident” Reid’s effort would fail. But Democrats — who refused to hold a vote on their plan Friday and begin negotiations on a Plan B — pinned their hopes on the notion that Republicans would have no choice but to back what they claim is the remaining legislative option to refill FEMA’s coffers.

“I had a couple of Republicans come to me today from states that are in disaster areas and said if it’s in the only bill in town, and FEMA is going to run out of money, I have to vote for it,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat, said Friday. “So let’s see what happens.”

There are Americans who cheered the prospect of stepping over a dying man who had failed to get medical insurance. There is no reason to think they wouldn't stand by and let sink into chaos a population that had failed to protect themselves against natural disaster.

Earthquakes in California, wildfires in Texas, tornadoes in Oklahoma, hurricanes in Florida, floods in Iowa - you know they're coming, take steps now to protect yourself or move to somewhere safer.

Just end the TSA and the groping at the airports and they'll be money to use, albeit unless things change, corruptly and inefficiently, for a federal response to natural disasters. Better yet, as Ron Paul has repeatedly pointed out, end our multiple wars and there will be money for disaster response and more.

If Scott Brown loses his re-election bid it will be because he went to the senate and voted like a Democrat. The people of Taxachussetts thought they were getting someone who was going to spend their money wisely when they elected him. What a bitter disappointment he has been. He's probably so pretty boy stupid that if he loses he'll think it was because he wasn't liberal enough. People aren't going to be excited about voting and volunteering for him this time. That said, he'll be better than Elizabeth Warren.

A Scott Brown Republican is just a Democrat in disguise. Good luck Mr Male Model, you'll need it.

We elect our public employees to serve their constituents, not to play political games. Republicans should start learning how to govern and pass the bill so that the disaster aid flows, and the communities harmed can rebuild. If the storm had decimated Kentucky, would O'Connell be stalling? He would be fighting to get money sent today to his state.

Harry Reid and the Spendocrats would rather see disaster victims suffer, than lose control over their Bank of China, no-limit Platinum Credit Card they have already used to drive this nation into the deepest debt hole in U.S. history. Harry Reid and the Corruptocrats would rather see disaster victims suffer, than cut waste in the form of worthless subsidies to 'Green-Energy' boondoggles run by political cronies and shady campaign contributors. Harry Reid and the Democrats will continue to pursue their reckless Millions in new taxes for the "rich", but not one penny less in government spending policy, until they are finally turned out of office in 2012, and made a permanent minority. Harry Reid is a partisan hack.

Why are some of you griping about FEMA's response to disasters? We've had a ton of disasters within the past year and the one constant in all of them is praise for FEMA coming from both Republican and Democratic governors. There's not been a single complaint except for Perry's faux one about his fires when he was already receiving help. The secret to this is President Obama's excellent choice for director, Craig Fugate, a man whose skills were burnished in the hurricanes of Florida. He is truly apolitical--just a professional who gets the job done well.

What happened tp all the money paid back from the bailouts. Multi billions got paid back. Why isn't that money available or is that money for the demorats reelection war chest. The demorats have now turned into the partry of "NO".

"I think they are overlooking a third option where the President throws some executive orders around and maybe has some lawmakers ordered to come to Washington to do what they were elected to do."

I think President Obama learned an important lesson during the debt ceiling debacle: don't get involved with these guys--let the burden fall on their shoulders for getting the job done. He's been wise to stay out of it so far--wouldn't have done any good for him to be involved. Inexcusable behavior on the part of Congress--both sides--but more heavily on the Republicans.

What in the world are you talking about? bail out money into war chests??? Every cent that goes into those war chests--either side--has to be publicly accounted for. Bail out money paid into the Treasury--not the DNC. And Treasury has to account for it.